Optimality Theory
Ren� Kager, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
This is an introduction to Optimality Theory, whose central idea is
that surface forms of language reflect resolutions of conflicts
between competing constraints. The book does not limit its empirical
scope to phonological phenomena, but also contains chapters on the
learnability of OT grammars; OT's implications for syntax; and other
issues such as opacity. Exercises accompany chapters 1-7, and there
are sections on further reading. Optimality Theory will be welcomed by
any linguist with a basic knowledge of derivational Generative
Phonology.
Contents:
Preface; 1. Conflicts in grammars; 2. The typology of structural
changes; 3. Syllable structure and economy; 4. Metrical structure and
parallelism; 5. Correspondence in reduplication; 6. Output-to-output
correspondence; 7. Learning OT grammars; 8. Extensions to syntax;
9. Residual issues; References; Index of languages; Index of subjects;
Index of constraints.
Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics
1999/400 pp./17 exercises
0-521-58019-6/Hb/List: $64.95 Disc.: $51.96
0-521-58980-0/Pb/List: $24.95^LDisc.: $19.96^P
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